NIST researchers store two images in a cloud of gas, open new possibilities for quantum memory

Physicists have already been able to store a single image in a cloud of rubidium gas, but researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland have now made a new breakthrough that could open up some new possibilities for quantum memory. As Technology Review's Physics arXiv blog reports, they've managed to store two sequential images in the cloud (not to be confused with "the cloud") and retrieve (or view) them at different times with about 90 percent accuracy -- something that could technically be called a movie. That was done using much the same technique that allows a single image to be stored in the gas, although storing multiple images apparently has the side effect of causing them to be retrieved in the reverse order of how they went in. As TR notes, however, even with that quirk, this new method could give rubidium gas a leg up over something like holographic storage, which has only been able to store and retrieve multiple images at the same time.